How to Move to Australia: A Little Look at the Process…..

Details are still a little bit hazy, but apparently, yesterday, this country discovered who won the election and consequently, who is running the country.

The guy who won the most seats, got the most primary votes and was ahead on a two-party preferred basis, well, he lost. But he took it on the chin, saying that’s the way it works.

I haven’t been able to fully verify any of this yet, because I couldn’t be bothered. Come on, the election was over two weeks ago! We’ve all lost interest! But I do know that the bookies have it as odds-on that Australia will be back at the polls again before Christmas.

How did we get here?

Today I sent off my seventh article for Australia and New Zealand magazine and I’m really quite pleased with that. Why? Because originally they only pencil me in for six articles, but I have since been given an extension. So BobinOz is still Available at All Leading Newsagents Now!

You can read my first ever in print article by clicking that link above and part two of that article is here, and it’s about Settling In.

Meanwhile, for those of you who missed my third article which appeared in the September edition, you could go sit in random doctors and dentists waiting rooms looking through the magazines until you come across it.

Or, you can read it here…..

Originally we were going to move to France. How easy that would have been; sell house; load furniture on truck; drive to France; buy new house; job done! But we fell in love with Australia in December 2005 and decided we wanted to move there instead. Now, this wouldn’t be such a simple process. If you’re thinking about putting in an application, you need to know what you’re letting yourself in for.

If I had been a horse, I’d have fallen at the first. Over 45 and no skill that anyone cares about. But fortunately, my wife was younger, smarter, did have a degree and an excellent employment record. Turns out if she could get in, I could too, being her spouse, as what the Australian officials unofficially call a “freeloader”. Well, that’ll do for me! So our application was primarily in my wife’s name, but I still had some tricky questions to answer. Like, “how much beer do you drink?”

I pondered that for some time. Do they want me to go low or high? After all, Australia is the fourth biggest beer drinking country in the world. I took the middle ground. That’s as hard as it got for me, but my wife had to jump through plenty of hoops before our completed applications finally went into the post in August 2006.

At this point your life enters what the crew of Red Dwarf call “stasis” but the rest of us would refer to as limbo. Should I go for that promotion? No, I might be going to Australia. Will you come to my wedding next year? I don’t know, I might be in Australia. Even simple things like shopping; oh, this is a nice jumper. But I won’t need it in Australia. I’ll leave it.

Then, about a year later after you have almost ground your whole life to a halt in pure anticipation, and if you’re lucky, you get accepted. All of sudden your life goes into Star Trek’s warp drive; sell the house; quit the job; throw a party; book the removals; find somewhere to live in Australia; book flights; cancel milk….

But don’t worry, you do get a pre-warning. That happens when the Australian Immigration Department ask you to provide them with your police check and medical. I don’t know for sure, but I have to assume that if they ask for these, a clean bill of health and a clear criminal record should see you through. But when we were asked for ours, we were still nervous, even though we were three fit, healthy and law abiding citizens. And sure enough, this process is still had a couple of scares left for us.

Firstly, my medical turned into a drama because I’d lost my sense of smell in 2003. I’d seen an overdose of specialist and none of them could find anything wrong. But the Australian doctor asked me to provide a full head and body CAT scan. Now I was starting to feel queasy!

Then there was the rat that popped up in our back garden, through a collapsed underground sewerage pipe. He nearly scuppered our house sale just three days before we were due to exchange contracts. Meanwhile, there were queues outside every Northern Rock across the country with people demanding their money back following the building society’s collapse. It was an ideal time to pull out of buying a house. But our buyers didn’t and the Aussies liked my scan. Within a month we were on the plane.

Yes, France would have been much easier. The Australian visa application process can be a bumpy ride, so be prepared for that. But if you get a yes in the end, like we did, it’s all worthwhile.

Bob,
Is it worth taking electrical items like your dishwasher, washing machine etc? I know you took your TV, but needed an adapter for it to work. Im getting mixed messages and hence quite unsure. Please guide.
Im moving in January from Manchester to Cairns.
Deepa

Aaahhh Bob! We’ve just got a case officer and have to have our medicals and police checks sorted. Had to let you know as I read your blog so often I feel like you’ll be excited for us!! haha. Make room for 5 more Brisbane…

That’s great news! Things start to move reasonably fast once you have a case officer. It’s at this stage you can almost touch it, it’s that close. Good luck with the rest of the process, we hope to see you here soon. We’ve definitely got room for five more and plenty more on top of that.

Hi BOB,
My wife has got admission offer to study her MBA in Sydney, and i also wish to come together with her. I am telecom engineer by profession. As a Dependant of master student, one can work full time in Australia, but i am worried that companies hire only to permanent resident and do not prefer to hire the professionals who are in dependent visa. Can you please suggest is it advisable to come together?
Thanks
Raj

Many people here who do not have permanent residency but do have visas that allow them to work are working in full-time employment. So I do not believe you will be discriminated against because you do not have PR.

That’s not a guarantee you will get a job of course, so only you can assess whether to come over here with your wife in the first instance or not.

Hi Bob,
still loving the article in A+N mag, I emailed them a few weeks ago bigging up your article and also asked them if they were planning on doing an article on the Gold Coast to which John the editor replied instantly and said he was busy writing one as we speak. Result!

Hi Bob, I’ve been reading your blog now for the last few months and really enjoying it. We have a visa application in from March and I can really relate to the “stasis” comment. We had thought we’d be all set by now but no. We can’t plan anything, as you mentioned. All purchases need to go through the – “will we need it in Australia”. Anyway, great blog.

I'm BobinOz and I moved to Australia in November 2007 after living in England for a very long time. Why did I move and what's it like here? All this and more answered right here at Bobinoz. Click here to read more on my about me page.